Ecuador Day Three

Today we met for breakfast before heading to the airport.  We took a 45 minute flight to Guayaquil and another 2 hour flight to San Cristobal.  This island is the home of the provincial capital, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno.  When we got off the plane, the sun was like an assault.  It was hot and sunny.  I could feel the moisture returning to my Minnesota winter withered skin.  We took a bus to a restaurant. Everything here was so different.  The restaurant, like all the shops here, have no windows or doors.  We had a roof but were really outside.  As soon as I sat down I saw a woman get on a motorized scooter at the curb.  A man got on the back of the scooter and she gave him a ride down the street.  You never see a man on the back of a woman's bike in the USA.  Five minutes later she returned her scooter to the same spot without him.  On this island, scooters and motorcycles outnumber cars 50 to 1.  I was very jealous of these two wheeled drivers.  Frigate birds, large black birds with long forked tails, circled the harbor like some beasts out of Jurassic Park.  This island has more sea lions than any other.  They lounged on and under park benches.  After lunch we had a few minutes to go to our hotel rooms and change clothes.  We were going to ride bicycles downhill from the town of La Soledad through the lush highland cloud forest.  We went to the top and looked at a chapel (see picture).  We looked over the coast and saw Kicker Rock which is also known as Las Lobos. It is a huge rock protuding from the ocean and we'll be snorkeling there tomorrow.  Then we rode the bikes downhill.  We stopped several times to look at plants or to hear a story about the place.  We biked about 8 miles to La Loberia beach where the sea lions colonize and raise their young.  We saw yellow warblers, Darwin finches, ruddy turnstones and marine iguanas.  This is mating season for the iguanas so the males are very colorful.  The air at the beach was very refreshing. We were hot after biking all that way.  We stayed at the beach enjoying the scene.  Some sea lions were nursing.  Others were fighting. In the distance, behind the sea lions, we could see surfers riding the waves.  We biked two miles back to town to drop off the bicycles.  Now we had to go to the Galakiwi office to try on wet suits and flippers.  First they get us all hot and sweaty and then they want us to try on rubber suits. My flippers were pink.  On our five snorkeling sessions, I'm sure I got the right flippers.  I never knew if I had the right wet suit or snorkel set but I always got the only pink flippers.  After than we had an hour to walk back to our hotel, change, and meet for dinner.  We met at 7:30 at the Deep Blue restaurant.  On this trip, we usually met at 7:30 and started eating around 8 p.m.  I am used to eating around 6.  And I get hungry around 6.  I never got used to going to bed so soon after eating. This is only the second day and I already feel challenged with all the biking and the walking.  I hope I can keep up with this very active group.